Worm - Fire Circle
by Arthur Hansen
Summary: Just a change in the order of two grenades being used should not have changed everything, should it?
1. Worm - Fire Circle 1-1

The battle against Leviathan had been going badly almost from the start. This mess up was turning worse, fast, Skitter thought to herself. She had been following Levithan through the rain, trying to figure how to use her meager first aid skills to keep someone from dying.

Her attention was brought back to the fight as she quit giving CPR to the very large cape next to her.

Miss Militia was firing grenades and manually reloading in between shots. She hadn't needed to do that earlier, so these must be some sort of unusual weapon.

This was proven to be true as they exploded into golden streamers against the hunched over shape of the Endbringer. The second created some sort of point in space that started to draw in everyone within a hundred feet.

The deputy leader of the Protectorate just calmly loaded another grenade as she skidded through the water, firing again at Leviathan. And then something broke as two grenades meshed in a very unsafe way.

Far away, a golden man in a scuffed up white leotard looked up as he felt a massive dimensional breach in the direction of the city he had been heading to.

When he arrive, there was a new volcano in the center of a twenty-six mile divot in the crust. Not seeing the Endbringer, he started to freeze the lava into a new mass of solid rock while he studied the residue of the dimensional breach.

It was into one of the branches of Earth that Eden had walled off, as essentially there were dangerous to their kind if they became aware of them.

But did it matter if he was discovered now? And they might not even really notice.

Once Scion had finished with his work at stabilizing the crust, he floated off to the west. He had other things to do, to distract him from his crushing depression.

* * *

A hand made of billions of stars and planets cradled an Earth in his hands. A spark of light was frozen on the New England coast, visible from far off in space. "This should not have been allowed."

A glowing figure of yellow starlight and black abstract stood in front of him. "They are an omniversal plague, attempting to become truly infinite across all realities that they can take."

The cloaked skeleton to the one side said nothing, as was her way normally. She turned and walked off into the cosmos, as if this matter was inconsequential.

"So you will save them?" the male cloaked figure on their other side said. His hooded and masked face seemed distorted. He seemed to come to a decision. "I approve of your intercession. These parasites are attempting to stop my domain, which can not be allowed."

"As does Death, for some reason," Infinity stated in her cool, detached way.

"Death is universal, but not all Death is meaningful," Eternity noted impersonally.

Death had turned her back on the moment in time as Eternity, Infinity and Oblivion bent their powers. And instead of a massive explosion that destroyed a sleepy city in the United States, a new city appeared as if plucked in time and gently set there in such a way to not harm a single resident.

The rest they left up to the Marvels.

* * *

Leviathan paused for just a second, looking around. Off in the distance, the sun shone across the Atlantic waters as the clouds over Brockton Bay seemed to be clearing up on the horizon.

Legend had not been distracted, pummeling the Endbringer back onto the ground. Then it was charging forward to slaughter two more capes.

Skitter was wondering what it would take to bring him was when the return of the other Triumvirate members kicked the battle up a few notches. For some reason Eidolon had quit playing defense and was now unleashing strong attacks.

Glory Girl was zooming in side by side with Alexandria, both unleashing powerful punches to try and keep Leviathan off his feet or knock him down. But he was so fast that they were both swatted away.

The flying blasters with Legend at the lead were doing a good job of hammering Levithan.

Skitter was kept running from person to person by her armband, trying to help save lives. Other people with less offensive powers were helping, but they were well over one-quarter losses already.

So the arrival of a new hero was a welcome change. His red and gold armor was quite flashy and he seemed to be an Alexandria package with Blaster powers.

"Who's in charge here?" the new hero called out. His palm beams didn't see to be doing a whole lot, but that also didn't seem to worry him much.

Legend floated over even as he kept throwing beams that bent and twisted to try and knock down the Endbringer. "The Triumvirate and Protectorate are generally in charge at Endbringer fights. Who are you?"

"Iron Man of the Avengers. How hard is this thing to defeat?" Time for a different tack. A massive beam shot from his glowing chest centerpiece. It made an alarmingly small divot.

"We've only ever been able to drive it off," Legend admitted. His electric blue uniform was almost glowing as he flew and blasted.

"What's his threat rating?" Iron Man asked as he fired his chest beam in sonic cannon mode. "And name?"

"He's sank Newfoundland and devastated one of Japan's main islands; killing millions," was the blaster's bitter response. "It's the Endbringer known as Leviathan."

"Iron Man to Avengers. Class Six threat. Sending a high priority call for reinforcements. Threat has killed millions of people and has only ever been driven off by the heroes that have been fighting him," the armored warrior said even as his armor's systems sent him rocketing through the air so fast he dodged the Endbringer and friendly attacks.

Shielder was trying to block Leviathan's tail afterimage, but his shield finally shattered at the impact. He saw his death incoming when the tail bounced off of a muscled chest.

"Retreat for a bit and recover your strength," the new blue and gold wearing man said. He was the sort of hero that could pull off the look of wearing a cape majestically.

Though he did not wear a mask, for some reason.

"Thanks!" the young man said. He flew back in a wobbily manner.

Hyperion did not reply as he flung himself directly into battle, smashing a punch about six inches into the Endbringer that knocked Leviathan back twenty feet. His second punch, which he held back much less on, stopped at another six inches in and forty feet backwards.

A beam of energy blasted in and bounced, only to bend back and strike again and again. It eventually it rebounded a final time and bent to appear next to Iron Man.

"I couldn't get very deep," Spectrum said to the Avenger's co-leader. The black woman's face was quite intense as she floated in her black and white costume. She would need to absorb a lot more energy to affect this thing, it appeared.

"My sensors are showing that it's layered, each layer seems to be progressively more resilient or dense." Iron Man looked away as he flew back. "Ah, there he is. Thor, he's some sort of hydrokinetic. Remove the storm so we are less handicapped."

Another new hero had flown up at high speed, spinning a hammer (?) in one hand. The blonde nodded his head. "Aye, Iron Man. You are right that this storm helps him more than it does us." The hammer sped up as energy crackled as the purple clad figure of Eidolon watched on even as he sent green beams of energy into Leviathan.

Alexandria and Hyperion were slamming blows down, both ignoring the occasional blast that hit them. Hyperion's eyes started to glow, then lashed out with his 'atomic vision' scorching a gash into its side.

"-so we don't know which Earth we are in." Armsmaster looked up from where he was talking to Dragon. "Incoming airplane."

"Unknown design, very advanced," Dragon noted even as she kept a metaphorical eye on her sixty minute timer until her shutdown.

The Avenger's new style quinjet was quite advanced and dangerous looking. The fact that it disgorged a good dozen costume heroes that immediately leaped into battle was a shot of good news for the Parahumans.

Perhaps things were not so hopeless.

The clouds we blown away, showing the noon day sun even as more heroes were being felled by the Endbringer.

"AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!" a man in a patriotic-themed light armor with a circular shield shouted out as he led the charge. "Treat him like you would if he were the Hulk on a rampage!"

Idly, Skitter thought to herself that most superhero groups didn't bother with a battlecry. Not since that group from Japan got killed at Kyushu, if she remembered right.

Leviathan spun around, his tail lashing out a lethal arc of water. An arc of water that was broken up or dodged. Thor had landed and blasted with his hammer alongside of Iron Man, while Spectrum and Hyperion had vaporized the other half. The remaining splashes were deflected off of a shield or by several of the newcomers punching or flying through it.

Cannonball and Sunspot shared a quick grin. "Just like old times, right?" Cannonball said as he rocketed towards Leviathan.

"That's not saying good things, bro," Sunspot said.

"Less clowning around you two," Smasher called out. "We need to rescue the wounded while the heavy hitters get to work. That girl with no super strength is showing you two both up."

Which girl? Skitter thought woozily. She could use some super strength to help pull this female cape away from the fight.

The Avenger known as Manifold appeared with even more reinforcements. This time of the mutant sort.

"By the numbers, X-Men!" Storm called out. "Psylocke and Marvel Girl, get in its head and try to shut him down! Wolverine-"

The two telepaths nodded.

SHNIKT. "On it, Ororo," Wolverine said as he snapped out his claws through his knuckles. "Hey kid, fastball special!"

"My name is Armor," the Japanese girl said in complaint even as grabbed him. Her energy armor-sheath granted her pretty good strength.

Wolverine went flying, claws out. The giant beast ignore him until his claws started to tear into the outer three layers of the Endbringer.

Iron Man suddenly yelled out, "Contain him. We are about to get heavy weapon support."

Armsmaster snorted at that even as he continued to study the Endbringer. Why wasn't he fleeing? Or disengaging?

Forcefields, telekinesis and material barriers were raised around Leviathan, trapping him for just a few long moments away from anyone in melee.

A shadow suddenly swept over the area as a huge airship uncloaked right above them.

"What the fuck is that?" Bitch demanded.

And then energy weapons and missiles shot down in a tight rain of destruction.

"Hellicarrier Iwo Jima," Iron Man said helpfully. "With a full load of Mandroids, SHIELD agents and attack aircraft." The heavy cannons were not doing a lot of damage, even if they were pinning the Endbringer down for a second. That canon should be reaching thermal shutdown right about now-

The beam had cut off, revealing the slightly more damaged Levitha that immediately smashed through barrier. He was barely intercepted by Alexandria, Hyperion, Smasher, M and Armor. That lasted only a second before Armor and Smasher were flung away hundreds of feet.

"You will not pass, beast," Hyperion stated grimly, lashing out with his atomic vision again.

"Thor! Let's double team him," Storm called out as she floated into the air.

"I have no need of thine assistance to summon the lightning," Thor retorted proudly.

"Thor! The X-Men are allies," Captain America shouted even as he continued to study the monster. This thing was as sturdy as major threats like Extermanis or Thanos, he hated to admit. Luckily its offensive power did not seem quite as high.

Sunspot slammed one of his solar powered fists into the Leviathan's back while the main group kept it occupied. Its tail's water echo hit him hard, and then his body was engulfed in pain as the tail hit home. His body spun through the air in a tangle of broken, shattered limbs.

"Sunspot!" Cannonball shouted out as he rocketed over to his friend and partner. His imperious flying blast ignored a blade of water from Leviathan

Thor's face had turned even more grim. This monster truly was of a power above most of the heroes arrayed here. "Come, Storm! Let us summon such a lightning bolt that even this Leviathan will flee from us in fear."

Captain America, Black Widow, Shang-Chi and Spider-Woman were all doing their best to avoid the splash and damage that made it through the heavy physical hitters while seeing what they could do to assist in the battle.. There were over a dozen capes in the air, firing everything they could at the fast moving horror as it dashed from area to area, trying to get to the physically weaker heroes.

And then Leviathan skipped across the ground, his water echo exploding the feet below Smasher and M, sending them flying through a building wall. In just a moment he charged the breach in a literal blur at Captain America.

"Scatter!" Captain America shouted as it stopped on a dime and suddenly rocketed away to the side. All of the 'street-level' heroes were trying their best to follow his order, but it was obvious they just weren't fast enough.

The huge water echo smashed through and chopped a building off at the base. The skyscraper started to come down in a spray of glass and concrete.

"Now! Come the lightning!" Thor shouted even as Storm gritted her teeth next to him.

A thirty-foot wide lightning bolt slammed home against Leviathan, blasting a fifty foot wide crater. A crater that the slightly shrunken and battered Leviathan immediately dashed out of.

"The hell?" Iron Man said to himself. "I've seen cosmic entities get knocked out by hits like that."

Then suddenly Leviathan stumbled and scrambled on the ground. His four eyes (three on one side, the last one on the other) was suddenly looking directly over at Psylocke and Marvel Girl. The ninja telepath merely pulled her bow back a little further and then unleashed a psiblast at the Endbringer's hump.

Again it stumbled, then it dashed off again and leaped over the intervening wall. In a blur that was at least a magnitude faster. In the water it shot off below the surface at supersonic speed.

"It really didn't like that attack," Legend said. "What type of energy is that?" He'd have to see if he could make some lasers that used it.

"Psionic," Marvel Girl said curtly. "We still weren't really hurting it, were we?"

"We were, but not very much. It's real bodies are elsewhere. That thing is just a war projection it uses its powers through," Psylocke said grimly.

"Psionic?" most of the Parahumans were muttering to each other as they landed and started going to help the wounded.

"Of course, we are both telepaths," Marvel Girl said, a raised eyebrow to show her disbelief at all of their shock.

"So where are you people from?" Purity asked.

Dragon's armor tromped up. "No, the correct answer is where has Brockton Bay ended up? What Earth is this?"

Armsmaster nodded at that.

"Most people refer it to Earth 616 out of the infinite Earths out there," Iron Man said as he landed.

"We call ours Earth Bet and have only had contact with one other one, Earth Aleph," Armsmaster explained. "It sounds like you might be able to help get us all home."

"Let's deal with the wounded, first," the armored co-leader of the Avengers stated up front. "SHIELD should have more hellicarriers on their way to help take charge and provide humanitarian assistance."

"They have more than one," Skitter said shock as she sat down. Her left arm hung down limply and her vision was blurry and wavering into double vision.

Off on the edge of the gathering and just around a corner, Alexandria was testing something.

"Door me."

Nothing happened.


	2. Worm - Fire Circle 1-2

Worm - Fire Circle 1.2

"Talk to me, Stark," a short-haired woman in a SHIELD uniform ordered as she walked over.

The armored Avenger turned her. His face plate flipped up, much to the mostly hidden surprise of Eidolon, Legend and Alexandria. "What do you want me to say? We managed to barely run off major threat for the death of several heroes, numerous civilians and foreign heroes?"

That got the hard-nosed woman to back off slightly. "Who did we lose?"

"Not we. Me. Black Widow, Shang Chi and Sunspot are all KIA. Steve is in critical condition, along with Spider-Woman. M and Armor of the X-Men are seriously wounded, but should recover," Tony Stark said. He jerked a thumb at Legend. "According to our new friends, that's incredibly light casualties for us. They normally lose at least one-quarter of the heroes and villains that show up."

Maria narrowed her blue eyes. "And villains?"

"Over half of the people that were here fighting were villains. The Endbringers require a truce so that they can be driven off," Legend explained. "I'm Legend. This is Alexandria and Eidolon. We are the Triumvirate and major leaders of the Protectorate."

"Which is the United States Government sanctioned super teams with branches in all major cities and even most larger towns," Alexandria explained with her fists on her hips, looking quite dramatic. "Legend is in charge of New York City and the Protectorate over all."

Director Hill noted that Eidolon wasn't really saying much. "You are going to cook up a gizmo to track down the monster and figure out a way to exploit its weakness, Stark?"

"It lives at the bottom of the ocean and can travel at hypersonic speed. So no, I'm not going to whip up some simple sensor to track him down. I'm going to have to talk to Stingray and some underwater specialists. Have you already let Atlantis know that this thing is out there? Namor's tough, but he's not that tough even at his best underwater," Tony said. His brows were knit in deep concentration.

"I have, while alerting the United Nations to the threat. They are doing the normal finger pointing and demanding we incarcerate all the new arrivals to be interrogated." She gave him a shrug. "That's not going to happen. This is U.S. soil and SHIELD jurisdiction."

"Pardon me, but what is SHIELD?" Legend asked curiously.

"Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate. We're the people that you call when your super crazies are trying to destroy the world or when one of the many super terrorist organizations pop up to attack civilization," Maria said proudly.

"And they only have to call the Avengers to do the heavy lifting sometimes," Tony said with a smirk.

That earned him a glare. "Stark, don't go there," the director of SHIELD said.

"I've been in your seat before, Director, so I know what I'm saying," he drawled out. "But I've got some things to do. Reed is on his way to see what we can do to open a portal back to their dimension. Don't you have important fiddly logistics directives to do?"

She just narrowed her eyes angrily. "Yes. I do. I'm declaring this city to be under SHIELD jurisdiction. Two more helicarriers are on their way. Call me later, Stark, with an update on Steve."

"You aren't much for secret IDs, I take it?" Alexandria asked.

"It really didn't help much when they wanted to kidnap me for inventing the Iron Man armor. Or helicarriers. Or everything else. Oh well. Back to work." With that he headed off to talk to Storm.

The three leaders of the Protectorate shared a look at that.

Ego, much?

* * *

Skitter lay on a cot in her own curtained off area of Arcadia's high school gym, her arm very crudely splinted and in a sling. Her other wrist was handcuffed to her bed, but as she'd actually seen everyone handcuffed down. Even heroes.

She felt like she ached everywhere.

The curtain was pulled back with a dull swish, revealing the bedraggled form in matted white robes. "Oh. It's you," Panacea said in a angry, sullen tone.

The young villainess tried to shrink in on herself. "Sorry."

Brown eyes glared at her. "You aren't really sorry."

"Huh?" the wounded girl asked. Her eyes were wide behind her goggles.

Panacea studied her, taking in her broken arm. "What exactly were you doing out there with your bugs?" she asked in a soft, scathing tone.

"First aid?" Skitter said. Her eyes narrowed angrily at the insinuation.

Panacea had walked up to her side. Her brown eyes had gone wide at that. "What? Really? I-"

"Save it." Skitter paused as she tried to think of a witty response. "Just save it.

"I need to be able to touch your skin," Panacea explained as she looked over the costumed villain, not finding a single thing uncovered but her hair. "I guess I can cut part of the costume away." She reached under her robes for a set of medical scissors.

"That won't work. Tougher than kevlar." Skitter felt her stomach drop. "Just pull down the top of my mask a bit." One broken arm and one cuffed meant she couldn't really pull off part of her body stocking too easily.

The healer blinked as she took in the costume a little bit closer. "What is this made of?"

"Black widow spider silk. It wasn't that hard once you get the hang of it." She tried to shrug, only for her left arm to scream in pain. "T-That was a bad idea."

Panacea pulled down the mask slightly, revealing just the upper half of Taylor's face. Idly she noted that there were lenses glued into the goggles. She had brown eyes, just like her. Panacea then put her fingertips on the girl's temples, cataloging all the wounds. More than she expected. The broken arm, bruises, exposure and... depression? Chronic stress and heavy depression. She wouldn't touch that, but she had rarely dealt with anyone that badly off that wasn't hospitalized for suicide.

"There you go." Panacea pulled up the mask. "Tattletale's still a bitch."

"I'm-" Skitter paused for a moment. "I'm not going to apologize for her, even though I think it was pretty cruddy what she did. She only has words to defend herself or use for the team. I'm not sure she really meant it to go that far."

"I'm never going to like her," Panacea said firmly. She stood back up and then leaned back, trying to stretch her shoulder and neck muscles.

She was just stepping out of Skitter's little area when the main doors to the gym banged open.

"-you can't go in there," a man was saying.

Masked heads all turned to take in the sight of people in tight navy blue uniforms with military style patches on them walking in the main doors.

"You will find out that yes, I can. Oliver, if he interferes again, shoot him. With a stunner," SHIELD Director Maria Hill told her assistant even as more SHIELD agents with high tech looking rifles started to move in and take position. "All right people. I am Director Hill of SHIELD. We're something like your world's super police. You are all going to submit to being detained while we sort out villains from heroes. No one is going to be hurt. This is just for everyone's safety. Do not do anything stupid. It will just get you hurt."

"What the fuck are you talking about? There's an Endbringer truce on!" a man in a black cape and gray bodysuit said.

"The Endbringer truce was on your world, not ours. So hands in the air where I can see them," she snapped out.

"This is bullshit! We put our lives on the line to fight Leviathan and you just come in here to arrest us?" the Empire Eighty Eight cape Othala said angrily. "Some of us have died fighting it!"

A very fat cape with a huge shotgun in his hands appeared from behind some curtains. "You don't want to break the truce. You're Earth has an Endbringer now. You're going to need everyone to fight it now," the Chubster shouted out.

"You're not arresting me," a very irate sounding Bitch called out. Two of her horse-sized dog 'monsters' were at her side. "I'll fucking rip you apart." Grue, Tattletale and Regent were behind her.

"Director Hill, what the hell do you think you are doing?" a new voice called out as a blonde man with bandages wrapped around his chest stepped out into the main area. Captain America, sans mask, looked like he had gone three rounds with world heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko.

"You need to rest and let the regeneration finish fixing you up," Othala said worriedly, trotting over.

"I'm capturing dozens of villains before they can be unleashed on our Earth, Captain America," the leader of SHIELD retorted.

"Are you trying to start another registration civil war? You know that the Earth Bet heroes might step in to protect them? You're smarter than that!" the battered sentinel of liberty berated her, pointing a bandaged finger at her.

"Brockton Bay is under SHIELD's directive. We are rescuing the civilians, restoring order and will maintain that order under my watch. I am not going to let another Genosha or Madripoor plant itself on US soil," Maria replied tightly.

"Wow, she's one angry bitch that has to prove she's as good as her legendary predecessor," Tattletale said with a smirk on her face. "She knows she doesn't have a legal leg to stand on either. All of our crimes happened on another world. About the best she could legally do is eject us from this Earth."

"Who the hell are you and how the hell do you know... anything?" the director snapped out defensively.

"Name's Tattletale and I'm psychic," she replied. Her eyes flickered over to the unmasked Captain America and blinked for a second in surprise. "I mean, she's just going to throw us in some concentration camp and lose the key."

"Bullshit. I'm trained to resist psychic interrogation and my uniform has low level jammers built in," the director of SHIELD said as she narrowed her eyes at the young teen.

"Maria, this is the wrong way to go about this," Captain America said as he pulled on his armored uniform top. His round red-white-blue shield was right next to him.

"Seems par for the course for SHIELD," the redheaded Marvel Girl said as she stood up from leaning against a wall. "Got some Sentinels on their way to loom over everyone and shoot anyone that tries to escape?" Her hound marks were very visible as was her anger.

"These are criminals. They are not heroes," Agent Oliver said to stand up for his boss, trying to hide his nervousness. All of the SHIELD agents had their guns almost raised up level by this point.

The shriek of boot jet nearly started a fight as Iron Man landed outside and then walked into the gym. "Director Hill. You have a call from the President. He's not very happy that you are trying to start a superhuman war here in a refugee camp."

Maria Hill gave him a truly angry glare and then headed out, her troops following behind her.

Tattletale just shook her head. "Talk about a frustrated woman. She had some sort of fling with Mr. Red and Gold, which just made it worse."

Iron Man's helmet tilted ever so slightly.

"Oooh. And he doesn't know? How the heck does that even work?" Tattletale muttered to herself. She almost jumped out of her skin.

'It's not a good idea to pretend to be something you aren't,' Marvel Girl telepathed to her.

SHIT!

"Okay, situation defused people," the PRT relief coordinator called out. "If you are no longer in need of medical assistance, go outside to the waiting area or head home if you are locals."

Captain America shook his head sadly. "Tony? Got a moment?"

"Half of one somewhere. Come on, soldier. I need to introduce you to the Protectorate leaders."

The two of them headed out and Skitter released her long held breath. She had managed to free herself from the handcuffs and headed over to her friends. "So what was that all about?" she asked.

"This world has a different set of rules for their capes. They don't care as much about secret IDs and they don't have the whole Endbringer truce dynamic. At least formalized," Tattletale said in an absent minded manner. "We should probably lay low for a bit."

Everyone nodded at that.

* * *

"I'm sorry, Collin. I've run out of time," Dragon said to Armsmaster about a hundred feet away. "Please back away so my self destruct does not harm you."

"What do you mean?" he stepped back. "Why did you activate a self destruct? Eject! DRAGON!"

Smoke started to curl out of the Dragon armor, then exploded. Armsmaster but up his armored gauntlets to protect his head, but no shrapnel actually hit him. A wall of ice had appeared in front of him.

"And Ice Man for the cool save!" said the mutant. "What happened to her?"

"I'm not sure," the Tinker admitted. That had been Dragon, but that had been the selfdestruct to keep her armor from being captured. "Can you put a wall around this area? I need to salvage everything I can to take back to my base."

"No problem," Ice Man said with a huge grin on his face.

A blur zipped up to Armsmaster. "Hey, you wanted to be informed if that expert on dimensional portals showed up, right?" Velocity asked his boss.

"Right. Where is he?" his leader asked.

"He's that old guy in the white uniform without a mask. Can you believe he's never worn a mask? I guess his Fantastic Four team never bothered. He's another Tinker, but they don't know what that means," the speedster said helpfully.

Armsmaster trotted over there, which ended up being an empty field between a couple of warehouses. "Mister Fantastic?" he called out as he got closer.

"Armsmaster, right? Please, call me Reed. I've brought a whole bunch of sensors to help figure this problem out. I don't think we can return the whole city, but we should be able to make a temporary portal at least," the scientist hero said with a pleasant smile on his face as he stretched out his hand to shake Armsmaster's hand.

He shook back automatically. "I thought your parahuman power was building items?"

"Ah, no. I and my family were accidentally bombarded with cosmic rays in space. That gave us each different powers, but 'building things' is actually just some engineering and physics knowledge," Mister Fantastic said. "So I can stretch like rubber. Which has useful combat uses, but a keen mind is the most important thing."

"So your Earth doesn't have people with the superpower of building super-tech?" Armsmaster asked as it dawned on him potentially why this Earth would have flying super-carriers.

"Doesn't that guy in Omega Flight, Box, do that, Reed?" the Invisible Woman asked.

"That's right, Sue. But he's been working on his engineering for quite a while, so he's gotten quite a bit better."

"YAWN! Boring. How's that coming, Reed?" the Human Torch asked as he leaned against the battered wall.

"Just waiting for Ben to carry over the gravitic infometer from the ship," Reed said with a laugh on his face.

Said superhero was carrying a multi-ton gizmo on his shoulder as he walked over.

Armsmaster turned to the woman. "So Iron Man isn't what we call a Tinker? He actually invented that Iron Man armor on his own?"

"Oh, Tony Stark? I think he has the superpower of making money, but technically he's just a playboy, philanthropist, engineering genius millionaire. Although I guess he's a cyborg these days," Sue said, then laughed at his slack-jawed expression. "Sorry, he and Reed have been competitive since college. Those 'Atomic Knights' were all crazy." Her expression turned grim. "Of course, a few of them ended up as major villains."

Reed had been stretching around while he assembled his sensors. He had it turned on and then started looking at the nearly incomprehensible information on the screens. He blinked as it gave a simple, clear return.

"That can't be right," Reed muttered. He started to adjust things and checking his diagnostics.

"Is there a problem, Mr. Fantastic?" Armsmaster asked intently, pushing away his distress. "Is your sensor not working?"

"No, it's working perfectly fine." Mister Fantastic turned away from his screens. "It's just telling us that you are from beyond the Kirby-Plank barrier."

"And what does that mean for those of us without multiple physics degrees?" Johnny asked in frustration.

"It's something that I originally thought had to be a subset of alternate realities when I first started, but no one could ever actually travel to them. So I had thought it was actually a flaw in my theories. But according to this, Earth Bet is smack dab in the middle of this. And if I read these numbers right, the barrier has actually become even more impervious." Reed had adopted a thinking pose. "It would take phenomenal amounts of power, cosmic tier even, to just pierce through the barrier."

"Um, like who?" Sue asked him.

"Probably at least a Celestial, unless I'm misreading how the barrier functions. But now I have proof that it can be traversed, so it might just require a better tool to get past it," the scientist said.

"So how long are we looking to get back to our world?" Armsmaster asked in a subdued, worried tone.

"Oh, hopefully only a few months. That going to create even more problems of a security concern. But that's SHIELD's problem. Don't worry, Armsmaster, we'll get you home." Reed gave him a smile in encouragement.

"We'll enlist any Thinkers and Tinkers to help, of course. If you don't mind, I have to report to my superiors." Armsmaster's thoughts were awhirl.


	3. Worm - Fire Circle 1-3

"So now what?" Skitter asked carefully as she kept an eye out for any SHIELD agents in the area with her bugs.

"We go back to the loft or your homes. Since the city is mostly intact, I think the local heroes are going to be able to get water and power working again." Tattletale was peeking around a corner and taking in some of the locals and one of the huge flying aircraft carriers. She leaned a little more forward as she saw trucks with the name 'Damage Control' on the side. "You are shitting me? They can repair Brockton Bay this week?"

"What? They are super repair people?" Regent said with a roll of his eyes you could even see through his festival mask.

"No, it's something they do all they time. What? Really? They've repaired the Statue of Liberty fifteen times?" Whatever Tattletale was getting from her power was seriously affronting her.

"Tattletale, while it's interesting, it doesn't help us decide what to do now," Grue said. His voice, as always, was muffled by his motorcycle helmet.

"Sorry," the blonde said contritely.

"You guys are all kids, aren't you?" a voice from above asked them.

All of the Undersiders looked up to see a young woman or teen Asian crouched on the edge of the roof above them. She had a wide grin that showed off fangs.

Skitter was a bit freaked out, because her bugs had to be manually forced to touch the woman above them. "W-Who are you?"

That got a raised eyebrow from Tattletale.

"Name's Jubilee. And no, I'm not going to jump you. Pretty stupid for one person to jump a team. Mind if I come down?" she asked.

Grue stared at her for a long moment. "Sure," he said gruffly.

"Thanks! I'm going to stand in the shadows, if you don't mind. The Sun is killer on my complexion," the X-Men said. "So you guys are looking to ditch Big Brother?"

"Not a fan of SHIELD? I can't understand why! They have such pleasant, nice personalities," Regent quipped as he leaned against a wall.

"They can be total jerks. Maria Hill's a bigger one than normal. So do you have any powers that lend to sneaking away?" the ex-mutant asked them.

"I can generate a darkness that blocks most senses, but there's a lot of sunshine out right now thanks to that guy with the hammer," Grue replied truthfully.

"Yeah, it's usually the other way around. Thor usually leaves it raining and dark. He's the god of thunder, not sunshine and rainbows," Jubilee said. Her face had cute pout on it. "So let's cut through a few warehouses here and ditch them.

Tattletale's eyes were blinking fast. "You believe in the supernatural."

"Being is believing!" the young Asian said. She then smiled to show off her fangs again. "Used to be a mutant, um, that's a person born with special genes that can give them powers. Got depowered, died and then came back as a vampire. Oh, and I have a cute son I adopted!" She turned back to a door and started to pick the lock.

"The fuck?" Grue said, stating everyone else's feelings on the matter.

"Oh, and don't call Thor a fake god. He tends to get upset and try to prove himself by beating your head in a bit and dragging you to Asgard." Jubilee suddenly looked thoughtful. "Don't think I've been there recently." To hell with this. She promptly kicked in the door.

"I'll fill this warehouse with my shadows," Grue said, promptly doing so except for a narrow cone in front of them. "Where to?"

"Um, does you shadow have to be a certain thickness to be opaque?" Jubilee asked curiously.

"About six inches or so. Why?" he replied curiously.

"So you could block all those lovely sensors in the sky with just a thin layer? Less is better in this case." At their stares, she rolled her eyes. "I've been on the X-Men for years. Use just enough of your power to control the battlefield. What if someone tripped and fell into the shadows and got themselves killed?"

"That's something I've done before and it makes sense here, I guess." Grue then made a push in his mind and all the shadows plastered themselves to the roof and windows.

"Now its only mostly dark and holy crap your eyes are glowing red!" Regent blurted out.

"Vampire, duh!" the vampire said with a roll of her glowing red eyes. She led them to the other side of the warehouse, peeking out to see if there was anyone present.

Grue was playing with his powers, making it form into a mushroom cloud with him at the center. It was barely enough for the five of them and the two normal sized dogs as they went into the next warehouse. But no one tripped and it was faster.

They repeated that trick three more times.

"So far be it for me to pry, but do you actually have to drink blood?" Regent asked morbidly.

"Yes, you're prying. But I have a perfectly great source of blood. Comes with the perk of advanced healing and minor immunity to the sun. Everyone gives me weird looks when I use the umbrella during the day," Jubilee complained.

"So use a parasol," Skitter said sarcastically. "That's what they were designed for."

Jubilee blinked and then looked at them. "Riiiiiight. Doh. Wonder where I can get one in black lace?"

"Isn't that morbid?" Regent asked as he was bumped out of the way by Bitch as she continued moving along a back alley.

"Nah, for vampires black is a fashion statement." The vampire gave them a closed mouth grin.

"So we're far enough away to go to our base? Did you want to invite your backup out so we can chat like civilized capes?" Tattletale asked curiously.

"There's no way you sensed him. Hell, I can't even tell where he is," the X-Man said in confusion.

"Yes, but I got that from you about ten minutes ago. Also that you guys are friendly. So why did you want to talk to us?" the unofficial leader of the Undersiders asked.

"I had him tagged before that. He's pretty good, but he didn't manage to avoid all of my bugs. I figured that one person as backup was reasonable, so I didn't say anything," Skitter explained.

A hunched over figure slammed into the ground, then stood up. Wolverine's stocky and slightly short form should not have been intimidating, but he gave off a very dangerous vibe. Even when he lit up a cigar, that did not change. "Hey kids."

"That's Wolverine. We used to be partners," Jubilee said helpfully.

"So what do you want?" Grue demanded.

"I'm just going to give you some friendly advice. You have options and don't have to be villains. If you ever need a place to crash, we can put you up for a bit. Wouldn't be the first and probably won't be the last time. A lot of our students used to be enemies at one time." Wolverine took a long drag, then puffed out a smoke ring.

"Sorry, I need the money this gig brings," Grue said.

"Helps pay for the stuff for my dogs," Bitch stated simply even as she crouched down and scratched her one-eyed dog's head.

"Money's nice. Does heroing pay better here on Earth number-something?" Regent asked curiously.

"We don't have that easy of a choice in the matter," Tattletale said finally, getting a startled look from Skitter.

Skitter was thinking. "I'm just here for them. The money's nice, but I can live without it." She realized it was true. She had been going to betray them, but they were her friends now.

That caused Tattletale to give her a startled look.

"Just an offer. We've had all sorts at the school. Mutants, aliens, undead, normal humans, even the occasional odd non-mutant hero. You guys haven't made it personal or crossed that line into mass murderer-" Wolverine was saying when he was interrupted.

"Would you keep your fucking telepath out of our heads?" Tattletale said. Her cheeks were flushed in anger.

"Marvel Girl's already left. You've got a couple of heroes on your team and some of you want to rise above your pasts. Just don't let yourself get so focused that you become something you will hate. Come on, Jubilee. We've got to get back to the school," Wolverine said.

"Let me give them my phone number so I can send them pictures of Shogo to them," Jubilee said as she pulled out her cell phone.

After they were gone, everyone shared a look of bemusement.

"That was something. How come I get the feeling that Wolverine guy would have been tough to take down?" Grue finally said.

"Probably because he would have. And his team was much bigger than ours. Shall we head back to our lair? I think we have some things to discuss."

They all nodded at that.

* * *

Deep in the ocean swam a king proud in his might after he had received a missive from the Avengers and SHIELD. Namor the Submariner was on the hunt. Atlantian sensors had picked up something in the deepest of the Atlantic.

"Ah, there you are! Monster, you intrude into the domain of Namor-"

Then his world exploded in pain as Leviathan charged forward in a blur that the Atlantean mutant could hardly see, much less react to.

To his credit, Namor fought Leviathan for over five minutes on his own. To his last dismayed thought, he had not gathered the Defenders or Avengers to combat this menace because it was in 'his domain'.

* * *

Armsmaster sighed at he took off his helmet back in his private workshop. He had hardly had the chance to use his new nano-thorn halberd. He turned to the robotic pallet of with a crate of salvaged part. Mostly melted or burned materials from Dragon's self destruct. And it had been Dragon herself, as her remote control could not reach across to an alternate dimension.

Which meant... he actually didn't know what had happened. He heard (and even occasionally seen) Dragon self-destruct her battle suits and hadn't really thought deeply on it because it was 'known' she piloted them remotely at times. He had always assumed her parahuman power was in Tinkering, but he suspected he was wrong. Or she had more than one power.

The part that did not fit is that it was obviously not Dragon's idea to self-destruct, but that she was forced to do so. And exactly one hour after coming to this Earth-616.

That told him that while she was in there, that it was a remote unit. And that couldn't even tell anyone she was going to explode until his life was threatened.

Which indicated that the greatest Tinker of Earth Bet might be an AI or cyborg of some sort and operating under programmed directives. So Dragon could be nothing more than the 'visible' tool of an AI Tinker.

Four hours later he had confirmed that he would not be getting a lot of information from the Dragon suit. The residue of carbonized animal flesh worried him, because he could be wrong.

He was starting to think himself in circle. And his normal person to bounce ideas off was either dead or never existed.

He put his helmet back on and had it bring up a list of new contacts. Avengers - Iron Man was at the top of the list. Well, he was some sort of Tinker and even used Hero's colors.

After about ten seconds, a voice answered. "This is Avenger's Tower, Helen speaking. How can I assist you?"

"This is Armsmaster of the Protectorate. Is Iron Man available for consultation? I need assistance on a matter of robotics and A.I." Armsmaster tapped his toe impatiently.

The screen flick to a new person. The thin man with a mustache and goatee was dressed in a wife beater and jeans. A glowing circle of light shown through the shirt. "Armsmaster! How can I help you?"

"I just wanted to ask for some help with a robotics and A.I. issue from a fellow Tinker. I think. Nothing, about what is confusing me, makes any sense."

"Well, you happen to be in luck. I've made several A.I.'s myself. In fact, you've already talked to one. Helen, come back on the line," Stark said.

"She's an A.I.?" Obviously not terrified of making artificial life, he thought to himself.

"It's a very useful set of skill to have, especially if Ultron ever shows up again," Tony remarked. He doubted that they'd seen the last of that killer robot even with how he was dealt with last time.

Ultron? That did not sound terribly good at all. "I think one of my compatriots may have been an A.I. or cyborg clone. Let me explain my thoughts," Armsmaster said, then started to explain about how Dragon had exploded without any real warning.

"Your remote unit of an A.I. does seem quite plausible, along with the idea it's just a unit sent out by some A.I. Tinker," Tony mused. "It's sort of academic at this point. You've stated that she's lost her bodies before, but always seemed 'fine' later, right?"

"Yes?" Armsmaster replied slowly.

"Then in all likelihood, she's been restored from backup with none the wiser except for you. But you are not going to be able to do anything until you get back. So make some plans for that eventuality. Reed's really, really good at dimensional travel. So he will likely have a portal to your world open here in a few weeks. Longer if it's not critical," the Avengers explained his thought process.

"Longer?" Armsmaster queried.

"Oh, we're the sort that works best under mind crushing pressure. Save the world, stop omnipotent godlings. Things like that."

"Ah, that makes a bit more sense."

* * *

"So you guys are totally open about your real identities?" Lady Photon asked the Invisible Woman.

Both blondes were sitting at a picnic table with folding chairs eating some food that was being provided by SHIELD. Behind them was the Invisible Womna's husband who was busy working on a device that was getting larger and more complicated by the minute.

"We've always been a family and it never made sense. Especially with Ben. There was no way he could have a secret ID. It was pretty hard on him back then, but I don't think he'd really change anything now," the other mother heroine said. The time she and Reed tried to live a normal life for Franklin's sake in disguise ended with Mephisto blowing up their house made it clear that their enemies would find them no matter what they did.

"Our team tried to start a movement of personal responsibility. That turned oout very badly. One of our members was murdered and it drove away an old friend away that blamed us for his wife's death," Lady Photon said with a sad smile.

"Why the long faces?" the Human Torch called out as he quit juggling balls of fire.

"We were just comparing notes a bit, Johnny." The Invisible Woman turned back to her new friend. "So any hints on raising a super powered teen?"

"As far as I know, it's pretty much the same except for the super powers. I've had some screaming matches that were quite the light show over the bay," the older woman said.

Johnny quickly stepped away, not wanting to get sucked into mothers-talking-to-each-other.

"Sounds quaint and normal somehow. As long as it doesn't involve time travel and the shock of fully grown up kids again, I think I'll be fine. Hopefully we can figure out a way to avoid the power confrontation. It was bad enough with Ben and Johnny trashing the TV again. At least they toned it down around the children," the Invisible Woman said as she gestured at her brother and the Thing. "Reed's been quite happy that the repair bill has only been six figures this month."

That got a giggle out of them both. "Kids!" they chorused.

Three superhumans were landing next to the dimensional portal device as they laughed.

Mister Fantastic pulled himself out of a small hole in the side of the machine, stretching back to his normal skinny human form. "Can I help you guys?"

The dark purple cloak and caped figure at the center just nodded slightly. "I am actually here to offer our help. My power allows me to adopt three other powers. Legend here can generate a variety of energies tailored to your needs while Alexandria has stated she has some information she has read on the communication technology between Earth Bet and Earth Aleph."

"Any help is appreciated. We shouldn't have to worry about power with SHIELD landing a helicarrier and running the city on its power for a while. What type of energy do you generate?" Mister Fantastic asked curiously.

"I think 'yes' is the correct answer," Legend quipped. "I can do just about any energy I've been exposed to."

Alexandria was studying the device. "This does look like a very similar device that Conduit uses from Earth Aleph, just taken to a very highly energetic level."

"Hmm. That means that the alternate dimensions within the Kirby-Plank zone function normally, instead of having their own exotic physics." Mister Fantastic was rubbing his chin. That narrows things down a lot, while making it harder. "I think I'm going to have to... Yes, that could work. Instead of a full blown portal that a person can traverse, we'll try for something like that communication window you have between Earth Aleph and Earth Bet. I just need to change the focus array-"

"You guys can actually understand any of that?" a gruff voice asked. "Hey Reed, where you wants you gizmo whodoesit where?" The Thing was carrying a huge device over his shoulder.

"Could you use a hand?" Alexandria asked politely.

"Nah, I got it," he said with a grin. He set the multi-ton device next to the pair of geniuses. "Getting to the point where half the time I know where Stretcho wants this stuff put without him even telling me."

"Don't let his act fool you. Ben here is one of the best pilots the US Airforce had and was training to be in NASA's astronaut program," Mister Fantastic noted with a dry grin on his face as he wiped his gloved hands down.

"Reed! You're ruining my sterling reputation! What are the kids going to think about me now?" the Thing complained in mock horror.

Ten more minutes of work and then Mister Fantastic turned on the kludge of devices. It looked quite different from his bridge, but operated on similar principles.

"Hmm. I'm getting something every few seconds, but not in a repeating pattern," Mister Fantastic said. "Looks like there's solid rock on the other side of the portal. Let me move the aperture about then miles south and a mile up."

Alexandria was watching the holo controls over his back. "If I didn't know better, I'd assume that was a jamming signal instead of the portal only opening occasionally. In fact, perhaps that's what we're seeing," the fully covered heroine said in realization.

"Of course you are exactly right. It's not a signal jammer, but a dimensional jammer. The ability to block an entire set of alternate realities... It beggars the imagination. Psycho Man tried to fake that he could intercept travel to the Negative Zone, but this appears to be the real deal." Mister Fantastic was typing away at the keyboard and then started to adjust knobs.

"Can you get past it?" Legend asked.

"No. Not right now. We just happen to be randomly catching the pattern and getting a microsecond opening. Not even possible to get data transmitted meaningfully," the leader of the Fantastic Four said finally in frustration.

"While we can't get a message through, we can send the smallest fraction of a signal. Transmit an FM 40.5 radio frequency. It's what the PRT uses for search and rescue. If anyone picks up even a small fraction of the signal, they'll investigate it," Alexandria said.

"That might work." Eidolon watched the female Triumvirate walk behind the device, as if she was studying it.

"Door me," Alexandria whispered.

A flickering light appeared in front of her for a moment.

Under her mask, she smiled. They were making progress.


End file.
